Tradition et innovation du vocabulaire astronomique français dans les “Institutions astronomiques” de Jean-Pierre de Mesmes et dans le “Traité de la composition et fabrique de l’astrolabe et de son usage”

Besides being a poet, a grammarian and a translator, Jean-Pierre de Mesmes was also active in the field of scientific (and more specifically, astronomic) divulgation. His Institutions astronomiques (1557) are noteworthy for their use of vernacular language as a means of transmission of knowledge but also for their literary ambitions and for the linguistic experimentation that de Mesmes carries out in order to create a proper French astronomic terminology. De Mesmes also served as a reviser during the publication of a translation (1560), by his friend Guillaume Des Bordes, of Johann Stöffler’s Elucidatio fabricae ususque astrolabii, although the extent of de Mesmes’ involvement in the writing of the French version of this treaty is not clearly definable. The first part of this essay focuses on the Institutions astronomiques as an expression of de Mesmes’ linguistic “hardiesse”, which also manifests itself in the translation of several fragments of Marcus Manilius’ Astronomica. In the second part we analyse Des Bordes’ translation practices, in an attempt to define his approach to astronomic divulgation in French. To this purpose, we compare his Traité de la composition et fabrique de l’astrolabe et de son usage to the Institutions astronomiques but also to other astrolabe treaties that were published in France in the 1540s and 1550s, such as Jacques Focard’s Paraphrase de l’astrolabe and Dominique Jacquinot’s L’Usage de l’astrolabe.